SA seaweed farming trial to begin

Updated
July 02, 2013 19:28:00

It's hoped a trial to farm seaweed in South Australian waters will spark a new domestic and export industry. Researchers say if successful, the project will not only produce economic benefits, but a boost to the marine environment. One seaweed expert says Australia has the potential to establish a viable seaweed industry in just a few years.

She says that potential is being investigated in parts of Australia, but there's still some way to go.

PIA WINBERG: One, we don't have a culture anymore of eating seaweed, so it's remained a cultural food in Asia. Two, at the scale of what we need to do to eat seaweed, we can no longer just wild harvest it. We actually need to know how to cultivate it and farm it and we haven't had that agricultural technology, if you like.

CAROLINE WINTER: That's where the South Australian Research and Development Institute, or SARDI, comes in.

Months of pre-trial work is now complete, which included finding four suitable seaweed species out of 1,800.

SARDI researcher Kathryn Wiltshire.

KATHRYN WILTSHIRE: Species that naturally occur in the area where fish are farmed, because we don't want to obviously introduce any species - there can be a lot of problems with that.

We look for ones that will tolerate the offshore conditions around fish farms and also for ones that have a potential commercial value, because the whole idea is that the seaweeds should also be crops of value.

CAROLINE WINTER: The Spencer Gulf is an ideal trial site. It's where the Southern Bluefin Tuna and Yellowtail Kingfish industries exist. It's also where the fish excrete nutrients, which the seaweed use to grow.

KATHRYN WILTSHIRE: The levels of fin fish we have in these farming areas are sustainable, but we really are getting close to the maximum limit that we can have without causing environmental damage.

So in order for the fish stocks to increase in those areas, we need to have some sort of mitigation option.

CAROLINE WINTER: Kathryn Wiltshire says it's a win-win situation.

It also means fish farmers could potentially diversify their crop.

KATHRYN WILTSHIRE: At the moment Australia is a net importer of seaweed and seaweed products. We don't farm any, we have very limited wild harvest.

So there are many potential commercial applications for seaweeds, and we've selected species that can be used for a range of those things.

CAROLINE WINTER: The trials are due to start soon and will run for 12 months.